


Flights of Stairs

by scrollgirl



Series: Brightest Heaven [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Community: sg_rarepairings, Crossover, Crush, Episode: s01e03 Hide and Seek, Gen, Pre-Het
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-08
Updated: 2009-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-06 23:04:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrollgirl/pseuds/scrollgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Jeannie McKay has a crush on Sheppard, gets jealous of Teyla, and crosses her fingers for experimental gene therapy. Part of the Brightest Heaven AU in which Jeannie goes to Atlantis instead of Rodney.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flights of Stairs

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/sg_rarepairings/profile)[](http://community.livejournal.com/sg_rarepairings/)**sg_rarepairings**. Set near the beginning of "Hide and Seek", with an AU twist.

Jeannie found Major Sheppard in the living areas Colonel Carter had designated for the Athosians, not quite patrolling but something close to it. He was with Teyla Emmagan, the two of them meandering the corridor, stopping occasionally to chat with Teyla's people. Sheppard in his dark grey uniform stood out amid the worn leather and homespun; Teyla herself wore cream-coloured denim trousers and a silky purple top that showed off her bellybutton and toned abdominal muscles. Jeannie tugged uncomfortably at her own beige and blue expedition jacket, feeling bland and underdressed.

"Dr. McKay," Sheppard greeted her, quirking his eyebrows. "Did you need me for something?"

"Yes, the puddle jumpers, if you have a minute," Jeannie replied, glancing hesitantly between him and Teyla. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the Athosian woman, or Major Sheppard's unexpected friendship with her. Despite welcoming the Athosians as guests into Atlantis, Jeannie knew Elizabeth and Colonel Carter still had a lot of unanswered questions about what exactly had happened during the first mission to alert the Wraith to their presence. Major Sheppard seemed to trust Teyla implicitly, had even requested that she be allowed to join his gate team, though Jeannie wondered whether Teyla having the body of a swimsuit model had anything to do with his interest.

_Ooh, catty_, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Carolyn's echoed in her head. Wincing inwardly, Jeannie hastily stuffed down her jealousy and, determined to act like the professional she was, gave Teyla her friendliest smile. "Teyla, did you want to come along?"

"Thank you for the offer, Dr. McKay." Teyla's own smile was warm and gracious. "Perhaps some other time. I must speak with Kanaan and Elam about our supplies."

"Oh, okay," said Jeannie, off-balanced, doing her best not to show her relief. "Some other time, then." She turned back to Sheppard to find him studying her with a vaguely bemused expression. "Major?"

He bounced a little on his toes. "Jumper bay?"

"Jumper bay," she laughed, helplessly charmed by his eager grin. There were two things that Sheppard very clearly liked about Atlantis: Teyla, and the puddle jumpers. Possibly not in that order.

They had to climb twelve flights of stairs to reach the gateroom, and halfway up Jeannie made a mental note to search the Ancient database for the locations of the city's elevators as soon as possible. "There _have_ to be elevators in this place," she panted. "This is ridiculous."

"This is good exercise," Sheppard called down from two levels above, not even breathing hard. "You need to be in shape if you're planning to join a gate team."

"I'm not."

Sheppard leaned over the railing to peer down at her. "Not what?"

Jeannie stared up at him. "Not joining a gate team." All the same, she picked up the pace, a glimmer of pride forcing her rubbery legs to keep moving. When she finally drew even with him, huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf, he shook his head with a pitying smile.

"Teyla and I raced each other up the control tower yesterday, from the ground level to the jumper bay." He shrugged, then started jogging up the last flight, throwing over his shoulder, "She beat me by three and a half minutes!"

"Oh, lovely." They were obviously meant for each other and she wished them much joy. Gritting her teeth, Jeannie staggered after him, making another mental note to stop having crushes on guys with whom she had nothing in common. Peter Grodin--now Peter was a great guy. Cute accent, nice smile, very smart, went to the gym a reasonable three times a week.

In the jumper bay, Sheppard had already lowered the ramp on Jumper One and was waiting expectantly for Jeannie in the pilot's seat when she finally arrived with a toolkit and a computer tablet. "You know, you could have just radioed me," he reminded her, all innocent eyes. "Instead of searching on foot."

"Please stop talking." Jeannie dropped her tools on the co-pilot's seat and collapsed, supine, on the floor at Sheppard's feet, more to catch her breath than because she needed to reach the access panels under the puddle jumper's dash. Looking amused, Sheppard swung his seat sideways and kicked his heels up on the DHD console to give her room. He hummed and activated the puddle jumper, lights coming on around them, even in the footwell where she lay, blinking up at Sheppard's long legs stretching over and above her like a bridge.

"Huh," she said, and stored the image away for another time. Reaching up, she opened an access panel and hooked in her tablet, then began directing Sheppard to shut down and re-activate different systems one at a time, trying to trace command pathways and power flow.

Sheppard was co-operative, just as invested as she was in figuring out how the puddle jumper was put together, and surprisingly patient with Jeannie's methodical process despite being more of a lateral thinker. Jeannie wasn't too fond of the glacial pace either, but she knew from experience how quickly things could go sideways when tinkering with alien technology. During an emergency they might not have the luxury of going slow, but they weren't there yet.

She quickly discovered Sheppard had a good head for numbers and mental calculations, though he didn't have much of a foundation for theoretical mathematics. Like all Air Force pilots she'd met working with the SGC, he had an abiding respect for the marriage of physics and engineering when it came to aircraft. In this case, spacecraft. Working with him was... fun. He asked smart questions about what she planned to do, and gave reasonable suggestions for what they should do next. Jeannie made a mental note to send him a copy of the files Dr. Markova had found in the Ancient database pertaining to the puddle jumpers, figuring he might as well learn what he could if he was so interested.

After nearly two hours of working companionably, Sheppard finally called it quits. "Hey, come on, I'm pretty sure we're over Dr. Weir's 30-minute limit for using the ATA gene on Ancient tech," he said, overriding her protests for one more minute to finish up. "Fifty seconds, McKay." He stood up and stretched, yawning. "I don't want to miss out on the good MREs. You scientists are a greedy bunch of hoarders."

"Wait, wait," she muttered, inserting the crystals she'd pulled back into their slots. "Almost done."

"Thirty-five seconds," he chuckled, coming down on his haunches to start packing her toolkit. "Better hurry or I'm going to steal yours to pay for my overtime."

"Air Force doesn't have overtime," Jeannie retorted, snapping the panel back into place. "There, done. With thirty seconds to spare."

"Cool," said Sheppard, grinning down at her. "Hey, you want to be on my gate team?"

"What?" said Jeannie, startled, and conked her head on the console trying to sit up. "Ow, ow, God," she moaned, rocking back and clutching one hand to her forehead.

"Damn, that's got to hurt." Sheppard put a gentle hand on top of her head and guided her carefully out from under the jumper's dash. "Here, sit in the chair," he said, one arm around her waist, almost lifting her into the pilot's seat. He pulled her hand away to look at the lump already forming on her forehead. "Ouch. Not much you can do except put ice on it, though."

"Do we even have ice?" she asked, flustered, her wrist still caught in the loose circle of his fingers.

"Pretty sure we do." Sheppard used his other hand to tip her chin up and check her pupils, though Jeannie didn't think she had hit the console hard enough to warrant that kind of caution. "I'll get one of the Marines on KP to find you some. You'll have to check with your doctor friend if you want painkillers, though," he added, his lips twitching up in a classic flyboy smirk. "Marines don't do painkillers."

_Carolyn_, thought Jeannie. _The infirmary. Big, scary needle._ "Oh, I forgot. I got the gene therapy this morning and I'm supposed to go back to the infirmary to get checked out." She had put it out of her mind since lunch. She'd found a device that morning in one of the Ancient research labs they were cataloguing, an emerald brooch thing the size of a toddler's fist that the database claimed to be a personal shield, and had been tempted to test the ATA gene on it. In the end, she had left the device untouched, still too wary of alien technology to turn things on willy-nilly.

Then, needing Sheppard and finding him, finding him with Teyla, then working with him all afternoon on the puddle jumper, she had been too preoccupied to dwell on it. Heck, she didn't even know whether or not the gene therapy had worked on her. Maybe nothing had changed.

"You have the ATA gene now?" asked Sheppard, surprised, and finally released her wrist. He perched on the DHD console, confident his weight would do no harm, and crossed his arms over his chest, looking a bit put out. "What did you need me for then?"

Not wanting him to get the wrong idea, especially when using the excuse that she needed his ATA gene to monopolise his time had honestly not crossed her mind, she said defensively, "Well, I don't know for sure that the gene will work. It's still an experimental treatment, remember?"

"So test it now." Sheppard touched the jumper's controls to turn everything dark. "There, I've powered her down. Now you try."

Jeannie practically sat on her hands. "Carolyn said not to try activating anything until she examined me."

"Hell, it's not going to hurt you if it doesn't work," Sheppard argued. "And if it does, I'm right here beside you." He pulled her right hand out from under her thigh and placed it palm down on the jumper's dash, then moved to stand behind the pilot's seat so he wasn't touching anything. Jeannie tipped her head back to frown at his upside down face. "Why wait for a doctor's note?" he grinned, clearly impatient to see what would happen, excited for Jeannie's sake. It was kind of sweet, if a little unnerving. "It's easy, trust me. Just think 'hello' and she'll wake up."

Sitting up straight, she switched her right hand for her left, then stared down nervously at where her hand rested lightly on the console. _Hello_, she thought, like he'd suggested. _Hello?_ The jumper stayed dark. _Hello please please hello._ "I don't think it's working," she said after a minute of nothing, crushingly disappointed. All this advanced technology, forever closed to her except through an intermediary.

But Sheppard stretched over her shoulder to lay his right hand on top of her left hand on the console. "No, it's working, there's definitely something there," he said, his cheek almost brushing hers, he was leaning so close. "You're not thinking right."

Jeannie's hand felt small and cold under his warm palm. "What do you mean?"

"What do you tell Dr. Lam to think, when she's sitting in the Ancient chair?" His thumb curved to rub her wrist under the cuff of her expedition jacket. Jeannie shivered. "What words do you say?"

"Open sesame," said Jeannie, and under her touch, mental and physical, the console awoke from its slumber, lights blinking on, the puddle jumper's systems humming almost inaudibly. "Oh, my God," she gasped, snatching her hand away. "It worked? Major, it worked! I have the gene!" She'd done it, she'd opened the door to a secret treasure trove of scary alien technology, opened the door to whole a new realm of science she could not even begin to grasp.

Jeannie spun the chair and grabbed Sheppard around the waist, a lightning-fast hug he failed to defend himself against. When she pulled back and saw the bug-eyed horror he couldn't quite hide, she blushed and turned back to the console, swallowing down an embarrassed giggle. "Sorry, sorry! No more hugs, I promise." The jumper responded to her mental command when she asked for the HUD, and she laughed, too delighted to hold it back. "God, this is _unbelievable_," she breathed, awed, glowing with excitement.

"Pretty cool, huh," said Sheppard, grinning again and leaned back on the DHD, his equanimity restored. "I can teach you to fly her, if you want." Every line in his body seemed to say, _you know you want to_, which Jeannie couldn't in all honesty resist.

"Yes, please," she said primly, spoiling it with another giggle. "And yes to the other thing."

Sheppard slanted his eyes at her. "The gate team?" He shrugged one shoulder, casual, like he hadn't been the one asking in the first place. "You'll have to learn how to shoot a gun."

Still grinning with excitement, she nodded. "Learn to shoot a gun, can do."

"And you'll have to climb more stairs," he added, mock-serious.

Jeannie raised her eyebrows. "And I'll climb more stairs," she agreed. "But I still say there have to be elevators around here somewhere."

* * *

  
[](http://pics.livejournal.com/scrollgirl/pic/000etdy2)   



End file.
